Compton (Vinyl LP) Rock N Roll & 50s

Compton (Vinyl LP) Rock N Roll & 50sThe circumstances surrounding the release of Dr Dre's third album are intriguing. By his reckoning, he was so inspired by the sight of his younger self, as played by actor Corey Hawkins, at a screening of the NWA biopic 'Straight Outta Compton', that he resolved to junk a decade's worth of work on the endlessly delayed Detox, and start afresh. The result is 'Compton', an album that seems preoccupied with Dr Dre's past: there is much reminiscence about

and cryptic

this album is filled with funk

and demonstrates the two sides of Mount Kimbie's aesthetic coin - each side produced entirely by either member

vision melts away

anyone with a yen for 1970s soul will find plenty to enjoy on Something So Right

but they wound up crafting an entire new album in a matter of days

'Harder Better Faster Stronger' - Edwin Birdsong's 'Cola Bottle Baby' is straight up insatiable

The album is a watershed for several reasons

featuring their only hit single My Friend Jack eats Sugar Lumps (banned by the BBc due to drug references) and subsequent singles "If the Weather's Sunny" and "Sugar Man"

'Borracho' reaches a cathartic wall of shrieking feedback

and for every member of the Two Tone army that bemoaned the lack of punk fire found here

Warren Smith